ABHA, 1 July 2003 — Eleven policemen were hurt when their helicopter crashed while chasing a suspect who on Saturday shot and seriously injured a security man. Security sources said the helicopter was damaged when it made an emergency landing in the mountains of Asir province, near the borders with Yemen, at sunset on Sunday.
The pilot made the landing because of a defect in the engine and not as a result of shooting, the security sources added.
The security men were chasing a 27-year-old terror suspect Dhafer Abdul Rahman Al-Shehry. Dhafer had on Saturday resisted arrest, shot a policeman and fled.
The area along the Saudi-Yemeni border is rife with arms smuggling. The two Arab nations recently signed an agreement to beef up border security in a bid to eliminate smuggling and check infiltrators.
